(Not sure if this is worldwide or only in some countries)
Updating to iOS 26.4DB2 will put your phone into a parental-restricted mode with adult websites blocked on all browsers, warning prompts every time you try to send or receive an explicit image on a messaging app, and all social media apps blocked on the App Store (in Australia)
The settings to disable this mode are locked off until you verify your age either with a credit card, photo ID, or though information Apple already has (like the age of your account).
I’ve been an apple user my entire adult life but this might finally be the thing that forces me off the platform. Do any other long term apple users have some tips about migrating? I’ve heard Ashai Linux is pretty good on mac hardware these days and I’ve been thinking about GrapheneOS for a while.
I find it odd to protect children they will stalk the hell out of us but won’t arrest known pedophiles …
I hate the world
It’s not to protect children though. It’s for political surveillance.
Exactly. Governments around the world, including the U.S., of course, have made it crystal clear through their actions that they don’t give a fuck about protecting children.
Better to just hate the whole Epstein Class. They trash the world for everyone else…
We’ve had a name for them for the last 200 years: the capitalist class, or to be more precise, the haute bourgeoisie. The 1% of the 1%.
In America.
So now California has a governor pretending to be pro-Palestine to do damage control while signing laws that give Zionist corporations more control over your data and hardware
Fuck Trump tho am I rite?
Yes but Trump isn’t the one doing the age verification mandates
This isnt where I parked my car.
its been 4 months and I am not regret about my switch to GrapheneOS. The only thing that can make this 100% perfect is creating a Google account that does not tie to your phone number.
So you need a phone number these days? That’s something I’ve read a lot of mixed reports about
yes some Play store apps are country specific so instead of switching my default country, which stupid Google only allows 1 per year btw, I want to create different profiles with different Google accounts. You cannot do that without showing that these accounts belong to whichever phone number you have
I know this isn’t the point of the article, but I’m starting to get really pissy about software updates implementing high-level non-security related changes to my fucking fully paid for device!
It doesn’t do anything but I’m starting to refuse to agree to any new user agreements.
It’s pretty much nothing.
I have 3 different AI agents that were forced onto my phone between Google, Samsung, and Microsoft.
It’ll be baked into the ToS somewhere but I agree it’s bullshit. Years ago I bought a youtuber downloader app (I know I should’ve just used yt-dl) and they released an update that removed support for half the websites and locked them behind a new higher-priced tier. None of it was mentioned in the changelog, just a prompt that came up after you’d installed the new build. I was able to reinstall the previous version and keep using it but I was still so pissed off
This is insane. They have to view your images to deem of they are explicit…
Basically a year away from a universal internet ID that will track all movements and can be restricted if your government doesn’t like you.
Apple already views your images for child porn.
They probably do it for people like Donald and all his Epstein friends to save and pre order.
Has this expanded from iCloud uploads? It’s crazy how using a device now requires users to allow company full access yo everything.
I guess I never believed it was limited to iCloud.
If you read the article, they don’t.
Who was the guy several years ago who was charged with child pornography for receiving a pic of his infant son’s rash for the doctor on his phone? Was that not iCloud via Apple scanning for questionable images?
Something I heard on the old OSINT podcast years ago.
Apple also said its anti-CSAM tool will not allow the company to see or scan a user’s photo album. It will only scan photos that are shared on iCloud.
The system will look for matches, securely on the device, based on a database of hashes of known CSAM images provided by child safety organisations.
Scanning yes, viewing no.
I remember hearing about that though. On first glance that shouldn’t be possible with what apple says they do. I feel like there was another detail I can’t recall that made more sense of it, but maybe not.
Hey degen, I’ve got your journal in my hands right now. It’s ok though, I promise only to look at the cover and not read it. You’re cool with that right?
Wanted to view*
This also means they are tracking all the websites you are going to.
They already are. Well depends on who they are I guess but someone is.
This would be pre vpn or anything else you could do to protect your privacy - if it’s at the OS level it’s before the browser and VPN level
That’s not happening now, but it’s the only way the are gonna be able to to check content to make sure “ the children are safe “
To get a sim card in Australia you need to show identification. There is no anonymity.
For a phone sim…of course you do. I mean they would know who pays the bill anyway right? Unless you have a phone company that takes bitcoin or cash only.
You don’t need ID to buy a sim in the US or UK, or most countries in fact. Most sims in Australia are pre-paid, not contract.
Phone companies are required to collect and retain IDing info of customers to activate a phone number in Australia. There’s no way around it unfortunately
The dream is over. The internet and technology are over. It was fun while it lasted, and it is time to re-adapt to a reality without dependence on 100% privacy invading surveillance.
When I first decided to switch to Linux, I started exclusively using apps that were available on Linux. This way I was able to gradually transition my workflows one app at a time without any rush. When I was ready to install Linux, I did it on a new computer so I still had access to everything on the old computer and there was no risk of going computer-less if the installation went sideways.
Also, keep in mind that Asahi only works on M1 and M2 Macs. (If you have an old Intel Mac, you can just run normal Linux without Asahi)
Oh and Veronica Explains has a great video about her experience with Asahi.
This might be a stupid question but when using ashai can you run any normal linux software or does it have to be specifically built for arm64/apple silicon?
It’s gotta be built for arm64
I hope someday any normal Linux software will be usable in Apple hardware. Unfortunately, there are hurdles.
One of the biggest hurdles was getting code accepted into the Linux kernel.
This became very frustrating for the previous Asahi Linux lead developer. He would push upstream code and the Linux developers would not accept it.
Why didn’t they accept it? Because it was written in memory-safe Rust and not in memory-unsafe C. Old Linux developers don’t want to deal with Rust. So they just refuse to include Asahi Linux updates into normal Linux software.
Majority will accept it, they dont care and governments and corpos like this
Yep
Google tried a few years back but there was pushback. Google will slowly boil the frog tho.
Thank you, Tim Apple, for making 2026 the year of the Linux desktop (but not necessarily the Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint desktop).
I have a Macbook air now. Do you recommend me to buy a Lenovo thinkpad? Qubes os is the top pick, I heard.
If the West follows into the footsteps of the propaganda they are spreading against China, I’d rather go live in China because at least there people don’t live paycheck to paycheck despite working multiple jobs. Every accusation against China was a confession.
Some people in tier 1 cities don’t live like that, but the vast majority do. As an average person, you would not enjoy China more than your western country.
I’ll figure out a way to bypass this or switch to Linux entirely.
And then probably end up in a camp.
Lame - never updating my stuff and will move off smartphones.
Not buying a car made after 2018.
Not buying electronics made after 2025.
Simple as.
You elected the government and regulator who caused this. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I sure as hell didn’t vote for them. But regardless of the government these laws always seem to have bipartisan support. I’ve avoided this crap so far with VPNs and fake IDs but something baked into the OS like this I haven’t been able to fool. Yet
Cant we fake this by creatong fake id’s? Genuineness interested cause thats what im gonna try when this goes down
I’m assuming the name, birthday and address on the ID have to line up with your existing apple account info or it won’t accept the card. In theory you could just change your details though
What if i have an android and what if i use paypal for example or something like crypto from which they cant check my address and such
Then this post is irrelevant to you. This is about a policy implemented into iOS. The only two options are credit (not debit) cards and drivers’ licenses. If you have neither then you can only use iOS in child safe mode.
